ODNT ProCK IT 



This is the admonition that should be 

 carried abroad on every suburban 

 ramble. The healthy and growing 

 interest in the great out-of-doors 

 cannot be contemplated without a shudder at the 

 destruction of plant life it seems to entail. A 

 childish delight in the brilliant or delicate tints 

 of a flower, in its enticing perfume, and its spirit 

 of renewing life, prompts the ready little hand 

 to reach and pluck. There is no more delightfu 

 sight than a child with cheeks and eyes aglow 

 and hands filled with the rich and dainty trea- 

 sures gathered from the deep shades of the woods. 

 But the speedily wilted and faded masses must 

 inspire a feeling of regret, and perhaps of pity, even 

 in the childish mind, for the fruitless destruction that 

 has been wrought. Wild flowers unresistingly wither 

 and die when plucked and brought out into the bright 

 sunshine, a most appealing protest against their 

 destruction. Their place is in the shades of wooded 

 hillsides, along damp, swampy ravines, or nestling 

 among ungainly roots, where the trunks of an older 



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